Anti-corruption campaign in China: An empirical investigation

Abstract

We create a database of officials who have been found guilty of corruption in China in the period 2012-21 with their personal characteristics and the amount of embezzled funds. We use it to investigate the correlates of corruption, estimate the effects of corruption on inequality, and find the expected increase in officials' income due to corruption and the gain in income distribution ranking. We find that the amount of corruption is positively associated with education, administrative (hierarchical) level of the official, and years of membership in the Communist Party. The sample of corrupt officials belongs to the upper income ranges of Chinese income distribution even without corruption. But corruption allows them to accede to an even higher position in income distribution. While only one-half of the corrupt officials would be in the top 5 percent of China's urban distribution without illegal incomes, practically all are in the top 5 percent when corrupt income is included.